They may not rank alongside the names of Brazil or Germany, but China are hoping to stake their place in soccer history.
A week ago, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission released a plan to give the country one of the world’s leading national teams by 2050. The first stage, already underway, is to introduce soccer in 20,000 schools, with 30 million children playing the game regularly by the end of the decade.
The midterm stage, to take place from 2021 to 2030, is for the men’s national team to become one of the standout teams in Asia.
Photo: AP
Apart from reaching the final of the 2004 Asian Cup on its home soil, China have never been that kind of team. The national team have long been in the shadow of its regional rivals, South Korea and Japan, who also have a plan to be world champions by 2050, and even of the Chinese women’s team, who reached the World Cup final in 1999 and the quarter-finals last summer.
“The Chinese sports industry is developing,” China head coach Gao Hongbo said last month as his team progressed to the final round of qualification for the 2018 World Cup, ending a run of three successive failed attempts to reach that stage. “The Chinese government, including the sports and education ministries, support football more and are paying attention to youth development. If we continue like this, China will become very strong.”
China managed to get through the second round of qualification as one of the best runners-up in their group.
Ma Dexing, one of China’s leading soccer writers, is not convinced that the blueprint will work.
“It’s not realistic,” Ma said. “If you look at South Korea and Japan, they have developed using plans that were made by football people. In China, it is done by politicians and officials who don’t know anything about the game. There is lots of talk, but no action.”
There has been plenty of action in the Chinese Super League. After five years of rising spending, the league as a whole spent about US$300 million over the winter to acquire players like Alex Teixeira of Brazil and Jackson Martinez of Colombia.
Guangzhou Evergrande have won two of the past three Asian Champions League titles, and there is a rising number of famous coaches in the league, such as Luiz Felipe Scolari, the 2002 World Cup winner with Brazil, and Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former coach of England’s national team.
Those high-profile acquisitions, and the support of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is a devoted supporter of the game, have created a new base of support for soccer.
Former Red Bulls executive Andy Roxburgh of Scotland was the Union of European Football Association’s technical director from 1994 to 2012, before taking the same post with the Asian Football Confederation.
Roxburgh is responsible for raising standards in the region and said that while the spending is important, the best soccer nations have multifaceted approaches to success.
“The investment that is taking place is very important,” Roxburgh said. “You have to remember, though, that other teams are moving forward, too. South Korea, Iran, Japan and Australia are improving and have their own plans.”
China will get a chance to test themselves against South Korea on Sept. 1, in the first match of the final round on the road to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. China have won just once in 29 meetings with South Korea.
South Korea’s German coach, Uli Stielike, said it was not inevitable that China would become a continental powerhouse.
“China can be strong if they have the right plan, but only if they have the right plan,” Stielike said. “I am not going to tell them what this is, but, sure, they have potential. The clubs have been spending money, but that is only one part.”
Japan, four-time Asian champions, are also wary of an eventual Chinese challenge, but they do not seem to be looking over their shoulders yet.
“China could catch Japan one day, but we started a long time ago,” Japan national team director Masahiro Shimoda said.
Roxburgh said he believed that China’s resources — its people, its finances and its current political support — could make the difference.
“It is certainly possible for China to become one of the best in Asia and the world,” he said. “Where there is a will, there is a way, and China has the will. It just has to find the way.”
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